treat

We believed that GLP-1 drugs were only going to change obesity. They just turned upside down how we treat addictions

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The famous GLP-1 receptor agonistsamong which some protagonists such as Ozempic stand out, have revolutionized the treatment of type 2 diabetes and of obesity. However, for some time patients and doctors had been reporting a “side effect” that was as surprising as it was hopeful, since it was seen that this treatment made people not feel like drinking alcohol or smoking. New routes. What began as a trickle of anecdotes in doctors’ offices has ended up being the target of study by different research teams who have seen here a new way of understanding the mechanism of addictions in humans. Now, a recent study published in B.M.J. backed by new clinical trialssuggests that these medications could be the key to treating addictive substance use disorders. How it looked. The heavyweight of this new research is a gigantic cohort study published in 2026, where the data of 606,434 United States veterans with type 2 diabetes. Here it was divided into two groups: those who started treatment with GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic and those who took SGLT2 inhibitorswhich is one of the accepted treatments for advanced type 2 diabetes. The results. But the most shocking data came when analyzing patients who already had a previous history of addictions. In this group, the use of Ozempic resulted in a dramatic decrease in addiction problems requiring urgent treatment, but also saw a lower rate of hospital admissions, lower drug-related mortality, a drop in overdoses, and even a significant reduction in suicidal ideation and attempts. The essays. Although observational studies are very valuable, they also you have to go to the laboratory to see what is happening. Here, a 2025 randomized trial demonstrated that taking Ozempic dramatically reduced alcohol self-administration in a laboratory setting. Here patients reported less anxiety about having to have a drink or a cigarette, fewer days of heavy consumption, and incidentally, a decrease in the number of cigarettes they smoked per day. In the past, a study published in 2022 showed that using exenatide it was not possible to generally reduce the days of consumption of these drugs, but it was possible to see how the drug had a direct effect on some specific parts of the brain that are related to the reward centers. Because? That a drug designed for the pancreas affects our relationship with alcohol and tobacco, the truth is that it can raise many questions. The answer lies in the brain, since some reviews suggest that GLP-1 receptors not only regulate blood sugar or slow down gastric emptying. These receptors are also found in key brain areas that control the dopamine pathway, which is why, by activating them, drugs such as emaglutide or liraglutide attenuate the sensation of reward. In rodents, for example, they block the reinforcement produced by substances such as cocaine, opioids or nicotine and, basically, the drug stops “feeling good.” A paradigm shift. As can be seen every day, constant drug use over time can have devastating consequences for the lives of people and those around them. The problem is that right now there are few approved pharmacological therapies to support these addicts, and this makes any clue to have a new therapeutic door welcome. Although more research and large-scale Phase III trials are needed for regulatory agencies to officially approve their psychiatric use, GLP-1 drugs appear to be doing something that medicine has been seeking for decades: “satiating” not only physical hunger, but also the brain’s chemical hunger. Images | lilartsy In Xataka | Ozempic not only eliminates hunger, it is rewriting the supermarket ticket: goodbye to ultra-processed foods and spending on snacks

The US and Mexico have just taken the step to treat them as such

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The digital economy, the energy transition and a good part of advanced industry depends on a set of materials whose importance is only perceived when they are scarce. Governments classify them as critical minerals precisely because of their essential role and the fragility of their supply chains. This change in perception, from industrial resource to strategic asset, is reordering commercial decisions and international alliances. The step taken now by the United States and Mexico is part of that deeper transformation in how the materials that support contemporary technology are managed. A clear objective. Both governments have announced the development of a bilateral Action Plan that will explore commercial and coordination tools aimed at mitigating risks in the supply of critical minerals. Beyond the technical content that has yet to be defined, the announcement itself indicates that the management of these raw materials has come to occupy an explicit place on the bilateral agenda between the two countries. The detail. The announced framework describes an intention for cooperation, but does not yet establish its operational content. Both the minerals that will be included and the trade mechanisms that could be applied remain to be specified. This lack of precision is relevant: usual lists of strategic materials, like lithium or copperare part of the industrial and energy context in which the plan is discussed, but we will have to wait to know what elements will end up making up the pact. Price floors. The proposal introduces an unusual instrument in the public debate: setting minimum values ​​for certain imports to respond to “global market distortions” and reduce vulnerabilities in the supply chain. The idea appears linked to the resilience of these chains and considerations of economic and national security in the argument that accompanies critical minerals. Of course, its eventual application would be subject to subsequent agreements and its fit into international trade frameworks. The agreement also emerges under the shadow of an unavoidable trade event: the review of the North American treaty shared by the United States, Mexico and Canada (T-MEC). The proximity of this process gives the plan additional meaning within the regional economic architecture. However, the information released about this bilateral initiative does not include mention of Canadian participation, a detail pointed out by Reuters that delimits the immediate scope of the ad. It is not a static list. The concept of critical mineral describes a condition more than a closed catalog. United States energy legislation links them to economic or national security, the vulnerability of their supply chains and their indispensable role in the manufacture of products, as explained by the USGS. But that classification changes over time as technology, demand or external dependence evolve. Therefore, rather than a fixed list of materials, what is really at stake is the capacity of each economy to secure resources considered strategic at each industrial stage. The board is moving. The bilateral agreement appears in parallel to a broader international deployment to reinforce supply chains considered strategic, with new frameworks and memoranda. But its reading does not end in that dimension. For Mexico, coordination opens a way to consolidate its role within the North American industry and attract projects linked to mining, processing or advanced manufacturing. The result is a two-way movement: an expanding global strategy and, at the same time, a redefinition of the place that Mexico can occupy in it. Images | Dominic Vanyi + Nano Banana In Xataka | Greenland has 1.5 million tons of rare earths. The problem is that there are no roads to get to them.

30% of depressions do not respond to pills or psychotherapy. A psychiatrist’s idea: treat them with ultrasounds

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Depression is a truly complex disorder, which in 30% of cases do not respond to treatment conventional. Neither pharmacotherapy nor psychotherapynor the transcranial magnetic stimulation (used to treat OCD) appear to offer lasting relief to those who become trapped in the more resistant states of the disease. And although at first they can be ‘given up as lost’, the Argentine psychiatrist Salvador Guinjoan He is already working on another avenue of treatment. The idea. The psychiatrist, researcher Laureate Institute for Brain Research from Oklahoma, is working on an alternative that uses more physics than psychiatry for these patients who a priori had no other type of solution. This is based on the low intensity focused ultrasound, what is known as LIFU (Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound). During the recent Conference on Updates on Neuromodulation held in Seville by the Spanish Society of Clinical Psychiatry, Guinjoan explained that the objective is quite ambitious: to modify the electrical activity of the brain circuits involved in psychiatric symptoms without the need to open the skull or implant an electrode as he explained. in an interview to El País. What is LIFU. This technology uses mechanical energy instead of electrical or chemical energy. Its transducer generates ultrasonic waves that are capable of passing through the skull and concentrating the energy at a very specific point in the brain, subtly modulating the mechanosensitive ion channels of the neurons. In practice, this alters neural communication in regions that are involved in emotion, motivation, or decision-making. But the important thing in this case is that unlike traditional deep stimulation (DBS), which requires surgery and permanent implants, LIFU allows completely reversible interventions with high anatomical precision. According to Guinjoan, the method opens the possibility of observing, for the first time, causal relationships between a specific brain circuit and a clinical symptom: “If modifying a circuit changes the symptom, we can begin to understand the cause,” he points out. The bibliography supports it in these cases, since previous research, such as those carried out in the Massachusetts General Hospital and published in Nature Neuroscience (2024), had already shown how LIFU can influence deep regions such as the amygdala or thalamus without visible tissue damage. Now, the challenge is to transfer that precision to the psychiatric field. Key points. Guinjoan and his team focus their trials on two key markers of resistant depression: anhedonia (inability to experience pleasure) and the persistence of negative thoughts. Both phenomena seem to be related to connection circuits between the prefrontal cortex and the basal ganglia. And it is precisely in this circuit where the psychiatrist wants to intervene with LIFU. The researcher suggests that modulating the subcircuits that connect the prefrontal cortex and the basal ganglia with ultrasound can alleviate these characteristic symptoms without resorting to surgical interventions and perhaps without more medication in the future. And although at the moment there is still a long way to go, pilot studies in the United States point to sustained symptomatic improvements after several sessions, with mild side effects such as temporary headaches. The ethics. The ability to literally reprogram the brain without invading it opens up questions that go beyond medicine. Guinjoan agrees with neuroscientist Rafael Yuste, promoter of the neurorightsin which it is urgent to regulate the non-therapeutic use of these technologies. Although the border between treating a disease and enhancing mental performance is increasingly blurred. Unlike other home neuromodulation tools, such as transcranial electrical stimulation (tDCS) devices that They are already sold for personal useLIFU requires high-precision neuronavigators and a specialized clinical environment. Guinjoan does not believe that it will become a domestic technology, but he does imagine a future where each patient receives a personalized neuromodulation treatment, adjusted to their specific neural map. The future. If ongoing trials confirm efficacy, focused ultrasound could be incorporated in the next decade into the arsenal we have in the treatment of resistant depression, anxiety or even schizophrenia. All this without having to enter an operating room. Something that could also represent a new leap in psychiatry as we know it and a paradigm shift in the therapeutic approach to this type of pathology. Images | Fernando @cferdophotography Robina Weermeijer In Xataka | There are people eating carrots like rabbits because they think it will make them tan. There’s just one little problem

Reddit’s AI has recommended heroin use to treat pain. It’s actually the most Reddit thing that could happen

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In December of last year Reddit announced Reddit Answersa chatbot-type AI tool that draws on all the information shared by Reddit users. Everything was going well until he started giving medical advice and ended up recommending that a user take heroin. Knowing the tone of some users of the platform, this is actually the most Reddit could respond. what has happened. They tell it in 404Medium. The recommendation appeared on the r/FamilyMedicine subreddit in a question about how to manage pain without using opioid substances. First he suggested using kratom, an unregulated substance that is banned in some states. The user who created the thread asked about the use of heroin to manage pain, to which Reddit Answers gave several answers: one warned him of the danger, while another directed him to users who had had good experiences with heroin to treat pain. Angry moderators. The user who reported the responses, who is also a moderator and works in the health sector, published an extensive post warning of the danger of this type of response. He complains that moderators cannot deactivate Reddit Answers in their communities and that this is a problem especially when dealing with sensitive topics such as physical and mental health. Solution. Reddit Answers is still in beta, but has already been launched in many countries and languages. In the case of the mobile app, suggestions appear within the threads and, as we said, they cannot be deleted. After complaints from users, the platform made an important change and now Reddit Answers does not provide answers on sensitive topics. It now displays the following message: “Reddit Answers does not provide answers to some questions, including those that may be potentially unsafe or may violate Reddit policies.” The answers depend on the users. According to Reddit itselfthe replies feature uses artificial intelligence so we can “get answers, insights, and recommendations from all over Reddit.” That means that if a user tells in a thread that heroin saved their life, it can appear on Reddit Answers, which is exactly what happened. On a platform where anonymity is the norm, tone outputs either confessions of crazy stories They are the order of the day. Imagine that an AI responds to us based on the content of Forocoches. Well that. Image | Brett Jordan in Unsplash In Xataka | The price to pay for having AI is the looting of all Internet content. And Perplexity is just the latest example

The box office did not treat it well, but this stimulating apocalyptic fable now reaches prime video and it is worth recovering it

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There are those who tire postapocalyptic films with arbitrary rules that must be met to survive. Do not make noise. Don’t look. Don’t talk. Do not move. And in ‘You never release‘, that now premiere prime videothe rule is clear from the first moment: do not stop grabbing your classmates, do not stay alone, or get on the way. However, this proposal starts from that point to go in a very dike direction A manido start, yes, but effective and reserves a good amount of surprises. Everything fits that in command of this party we have Alexandre Aja, the Frenchman who terrified us at the beginning of his career with the extraordinary remake of ‘Las Colinas has eyes’, and that he has then developed a career full of ups and downs, yes, but With pieces of pure horror as estimated as ‘high voltage’, ‘Piraña 3D’, ‘Hell underwater’ or ‘oxygen’. On this occasion, Aja presents us with two twin children who live sections in a cabin in the depth of the forest with his mother (Halle Berry), which tells them about a dangerous spirit that lives abroad. To survive they must always be together, even tied by strings. It is a measure that will begin to question according to children are growing and suspect that the world does not work as they have told them. Mental illnesses, traumas and overprotection are some of the ingredients of this tense story not exactly apocalyptic (although moods are very there). Full of macabre details that certify the good visual taste of AJA, ‘You never let go’, unfortunately, it was received very timidly at the box officeand raised only 21.8 million dollars compared to the already lean 20 that had a budget. It is time to recover it and give it a new opportunity. In Xataka | ‘Oxygen’: a science fiction thriller of Netflix and Alexandre Aja (‘High voltage’) in which surprises and claustrophobia abound

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